Joo Adibe, CEO of the company, talks about the brand’s strategies for the World Cup in Qatar
With an investment of R$40 million, Cimed is in its second World Cup cycle as sponsor of the Brazilian team. In total, the pharmaceutical company is in Qatar with 38 projects, the main one not involving the players, but their wives. In addition, the pharmaceutical company is also sponsoring Casa Brasil, a project developed by Desimpedidos.
In this space, based in Qatar, influencers Fred, Gonze, Ale Xavier and Luana Maluf, from Passa a Bola, are producing content about the competition and contextualizing Cimed’s products in them. The company is also supporting the MVA (Movimento Verde Amarelo), the official supporters of the Brazilian team, responsible for connecting the fans present, acting with various physical actions and digital channels.
Cimed has a very strong digital presence and we want to intensify this strategy during the competition, showing that our yellow will also be present in Qatar, vibrating for our selection, said Joo Adibe, CEO of Cimed.
How did Cimed’s relationship with sport begin?
Sport has belonged to us for over 20 years and I think it has a factor that is totally connected with our business, which is health. Every high-performance athlete, in any modality, takes great care of his health and that is one of our goals. When we look, especially at collectives, sport is also closely linked to high-performance company management. Everything is linked and this gave rise to the idea of being, perhaps, the company that has the most assets in Brazilian sports, in a very diversified way.
Why did you decide to bet on football?
We discovered that, within football, there are several assets that were not used and I think that was our great insight. Apart from the jersey and the stadium signs, which everyone advertises, there are other properties such as stretcher carts, the stretcher itself, squeezes, bench seats, training vests…
You are sponsors of the Brazilian team. How did the conversation with the CBF start and what are the plans for the World Cup?
We’ve sponsored the team for seven years, so this is our second World Cup cycle. The first was in Russia. I think the championship is a platform for the whole family, not just for men or women. The Cup involves everyone. I think the Brazilian team makes us proud and can be one of the sponsors of the biggest team in the giant world. Regarding the activities in Qatar, the challenge is huge because it is a different country and, consequently, this is a different World Cup. There are six hours of time difference, so, not online, for example, we have to adapt to this time difference. In Turin, Italy, and where the team prepared for the games, I could feel what it would be like. The team was training at 8 am in that time zone, but in Brazil it was 4 am. This worried both us and the journalists who were covering the selection there.
How much did you invest for the World Cup?
We are investing approximately BRL 40 million throughout the four-year cycle of the World Cup – men’s and women’s, considering the sponsorship of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), in addition to actions carried out during this period. We are also going to make available the equivalent of R$100 million in products during the World Cup, in a promotional action that will reward customers (pharmacies) with double the orders placed for each match that the Brazilian team wins. The campaign will be valid for the entire portfolio and at each stage a different family of products will be contemplated.
What are the actions you have planned for the World Cup?
We developed 38 projects for the Cup, considering company employees, partners and consumers. One of the main ones is hiring five influencers, women of national team athletes to include Lavitan and bring backstage content that only they will have access to. In addition to them, we are also sponsoring Casa Brasil, a project developed by Desimpedidos and, in this space, based in Qatar, influencers Fred, Gonze, Ale Xavier and Luana Maluf, from Passa a Bola, will produce content about the competition, contextualized with products from Cimed. We are still supporting the MVA (Movimento Verde Amarelo), the official supporters of the Brazilian team. We also took more than 60 clients to Qatar to follow the games, in addition to investing in internal actions so that employees can get into the spirit of the biggest football event in the world. Until the end of the Cup, content will be published on our social networks with the motto Champions by Nature, telling personal and professional stories of employees, to show that everyone can be champions, whether on the field or in life.
What are your expectations for the Cup?
Speaking of selection, we have a very solid team, right? A very European team with only three Brazilian players and practically the entire technical staff. So, I think this will be one of the great advantages that Brazil has and little has been said about this issue of the commission. We know that you don’t win overnight and, in the case of the national team, a trajectory of six years and that will be important. And Cimed is here to help. We have a very strong presence on digital and we want to intensify this strategy during the competition, showing that our yellow will also be present in Qatar, vibrating for our team.
What is the return that Cimed expects with the actions of the championship?
Within our planning, we have a great pillar that is education. In the case of vitamins, show the population the importance of consuming vitamins in their daily lives and we will use it a lot as a digital strategy with influencers using these vitamins and how important this is for their immunity, increased energy and less tiredness , between others. In addition, another objective is engagement, thinking about the final consumer, actions with influencers, women, Casa Brasil, MVA. We want to reach all these potential consumers through digital.
You have a focus on women’s football as well. How important is it for brands to support this modality?
I think it’s extremely important. We are coming very strong in women’s football, both at Palmeiras and Cruzeiro. Next year, we have the women’s World Cup and the Brazilian team doesn’t have any stars, it has never been a world champion, unlike the men’s, and we want to be a force in the modality as well. Women’s football is very close-knit, there is a lot of family involved and, currently, women want to play soccer too and I think Brazilians were not aware of that.
What are your plans for the Women’s World Cup?
We haven’t finalized this plan yet because we are waiting for the results of the Men’s World Cup. Especially because the women’s Cup will be in Australia, with a 12-hour difference in our time zone. One of our main objectives with the current Cup is to measure the audience in order to be able to plan. We will have six months to promote and warm up the audience for the Women’s Cup.
Cimed works a lot on the issue of prevention. How do you communicate this and how does sport help in this communication?
Brazilians use curative medicine. About 70% of what is sold here is curative and 30% is preventive. What we want to show is that if you don’t prevent it, you don’t cure it. But prevention comes a lot from education and this is one of Cimed’s biggest purposes today. We are leaders in vitamins and, as incredible as it may seem, only 6% of the Brazilian population consumes vitamins. Only 6% in a country of more than 210 million inhabitants. The logic is that the more you prevent yourself, the less diseases you will have in the future. In the case of sport, today’s players are aging at 50, 60 years old very well. Why? Due to prevention. When you take these 15, 16 year old players who are already in high performance sport, the more you prevent it, the better it will be in the future. This is what links pharmaceuticals to sports.
